Hilltopper39

The SeaWorld parks "Blue Friday" deals are live now. Not as many good deals on the season passes like in previous years but $60 for a 2 day Aquatica/SeaWorld Orlando ticket, and $70 fora 2 day SeaWorld/Busch Gardens is pretty good. Might be worth grabbing for anyone who plans to be in Orlando at some point during 2019.

Glad to see someone else appreciates Poseidon's Fury, I always loved that attraction.

Twenty One Pilots in Tampa last weekend, super fun show.

Sorry about that game, probably be the one and only highlight of this season for the Jags, it was a fun game in person for sure but a day in the Magic Kingdom is justas good.

This property is really interesting to me, I know it was reported that they will allow non resort guest to purchase daily tickets to the water park so I'm anxious to see what kind of pricing structure those tickets have compared to other water parks in the area. I mean the Margaritaville waterpark certainly won't be on the level of Blizzard Beach but for what it is it looks pretty good and depending on how it's priced it could be a really nice option.

There was a small gift shop and some restrooms back by the attraction exit in some kind of bazaar set up, then I believe there was a small splash pad near the entrance with a lego station of some sort.

I had no idea this event existed. I've stayed at that Holiday Inn Waterpark resort a few times and really enjoyed it, it's the perfect kind of property for my kids at the age they are so having an on site haunted walk through it just a bonus this time of year. Great report.

Polar Expresso is the best coffee shop name ever, Holiday World's pun game is at an elite level.

She didn't tell you about the fle-market? There's a hell of a flea market. Bowling Green is a great town for what it is, but yeah not much there.

The scare lab look really fun, what a cool idea!

^^Last Saturday the FL+ line for SV was pretty reasonable early in the day (around 1pm or so) just short of the stairs then at night around 10:30 was considerably longer but still probably under 45 minutes. Maverick was hit or miss all day, some times back closer to the FL entrance and other times halfway up the stairs. Millennium Force's FL line should be about the same all day since the merge point is at the bottom of the ramp, about 20ish minutes. Felt like Millenium Force and Gatekeeper had the slowest moving FL lines because of where the merge points were, where as Valravn and Raptor's were practically walk ons. But yeah that was late September so next weekend it may be totally different, I'd still say you'd be safer getting on Maverick/SV with shorter FL+ waits earlier in the day though.

How tall are you? I'm 6'5" and they put a lot of pressure on my shoulder blades, especially as they tighten over the course of the ride. Also, and this is totally just a personal problem, but I find the thigh/lap portion of the restraint uncomfortable as well. Too many squats lead to big boy thighs being squished. I'm like 6'2", another guy in our group was 6'6"ish and he never mentioned anything about discomfort on Gatekeeper or Valravn so maybe it's just a personal thing.

I spent Saturday at Cedar point for my first visit in like 11 years and we had an absolutely incredible day. The weather was great and it was crowded but with Fastlane+ we were able to get multiple rides on everything with no issues. I think our longest wait with fastlane+ was maybe around 50 minutes for Dragster but it might have been down before that so the line backed up a bit. I think we managed something like 30+ total rides included multiples on everything in the park (2 on Dragster/MF/GK/maverick, 3 on SV/Valravn/Raptor/magnum) on a Saturday during Halloween so the Fastlane was totally worth every penny. Just a few thoughts..... The park was really clean and looked great, I didn't see anything anywhere that looks like what was described in this thread a few pages back. We didn't eat at any restaurants but had plenty of snacks and drinks and the food lines were all perfectly manageable. Chik Fila line was spilling out of the building at one point but the food trucks n stuff were all fine. Operations on the rides were incredible, whatever staffing issues people were talking about last weekend didn't seem to effect the rides, 3 trains on almost everything from open to close and the crews were all great. It had been a while since I'd been to CP but all of the stuff that was "new" to me looks incredible, the boardwalk area and kids section around Gatekeeper and WT, the Midway around Valravn, the Gemini Midway, the main entrance, the whole place just felt really alive and vibrant. Also, that park at night is something else, all of the light packages they've added to the ferris wheel, wind seeker, and the coasters just really looked awesome at night. The Halloween event, looked great, the Midnight Syndicate show was kinda cheesy/fun, the kids stuff all looked like a blast......but the scare zones ugh, not very good. The house lines were pretty long so we avoided them, but did go through Deprivation and.......WTF was that? No wonder there was no line for it. Based on the other reviews and the scare zones I'm glad we didn't waste any time on the houses. Steel Vengeance: Wow, what else can be said, totally awesome ride. I didn't find it "rough" or "uncomfortable" but it was very intense. The intensity alone kind of reminded me of Voyage opening year when it was still smooth and good, we got off Vengeance kind of out of breath from bracing through the whole thing but it was awesome. We got 3 rides on it, 2 up front and 1 in the back, don't really know where I prefer it's just awesome all over but....... Maverick: Still my favorite at the park, and in the world, this thing is just awesome, the launches, the intensity, the variety of inversions yeah maverick is still my favorite coaster in the world. Valravn: The surprise of the trip, I was just expecting Sheikra, one trick pony big drop and then a boring layout, but that thing was so much fun. Incredible view from up top, loved the lights under the drop, fun layout, and the Fastlane line was super short so we hit it like 3 times. Loved it. Millennium Force is still fun, still an incredible drop, there was bit more floater air on the two hills than I remember but layout after the drop is still mostly forgettable but whatever, it's long and super fast and smooth. Rougarou: So much better as a Floorless, and I love the colors of that thing. Another surprise. Gatekeeper: This was new for me, it's not a top 10 ride or anything but I loved the keyhole interactions and the wing over drop thing. A bit more intense then I was expecting, really fun ride. Also, do people still complain about the B&M vest restraints? I had absolutely no issues with them, don't see what the fuss is about. Raptor: Still rocks after all these years, my goodness that thing is intense and I love it. The tracer lights on teh ground under the cobra roll were a really cool touch, and the same thing with the lights under the drop on Valravn, super cool. Magnum: Running great, I ended the night on it and stayed on for a couple of laps, clearly not the star of the park anymore but just as fun as I remember. Also, the trim in the turn around wasn't on at all, has this been the case for a while? With no trim the return run to the station was violent, but in a good way haha. Great day overall, can't wait to get back again maybe sometime sooner than 11 years this time.

Remember that Happily Ever After started the NIGHT AFTER Wishes ended. I'm sure they are going to be testing the new show for MONTHS before it opens and they'll have everything in place to swap out the old for the new. I mean, we already know that the drone show at Disney Springs last year was a "test" to see how well drones will work over water. Hmmm.... If that test was successful or not, or if it was even for "New Illuminations" we will only know sometime next year... Yeah I forgot how quickly they turned that one around, and I never though about the drone show from last Christmas being a potential "test" but that makes sense. Seems like most of the reviews of that were kinda meh, but the potential is there for it to be spectacular that's for sure.

Any strategy recommendations if we don't have early entry and just Fastlane+? Our lodging plans are still in flux but sounds like the rest of my group prefers to either get an Air BnB or head back to Cleveland that night instead of staying on property, they're lame haha.

Realistically on a Saturday during Halloweekends with Fastlane+ you can still get multiple rides on just about everything you want right? I get that you might not be able to marathon Steel Vengeance and Maverick but 1 or 2 rides on those and multiples on everything else is pretty doable isn't it?

I freaking love Illuminations, love absolutely everything about it, but it is a little dated so I'm excited to see what they have in store. Seem like according to the press release (or some other source I don't remember) there's a pretty quick turnaround from the time the current show ends and the new one begins, which makes me wonder if they're gonna re-use some elements of the current show like the inferno barge or the pyro locations around the lagoon.

I saw it on the website but have no idea what it is, but $10 sky coaster tickets....yes please.

75 minutes for Gemini, #worthit.

Other than Steel Vengance how were the lines for most of the other major coasters? I'm heading up this weekend and was curious how the crowds were for the event.

Did ya see the name of the new team in Alabama....... Rocket City Trash Pandas

Interested to hear how the crowds are this weekend, I'm going next Saturday (might add Friday not sure yet) with early entry. Still planning on getting FastLane for rides but if the houses have reasonable waits I wouldn't mind checking some of them out.

I've been putting off a trip to BGT for a few years now but dang, if they keep adding stuff I'll have to go eventually haha.

For cheap hotels check out Choicehotels.com, I know they have several properties in the I-Drive area that are probably withing walking distance of either SeaWorld or either of the FunSpot parks. They're not the nicest hotels in the world but I'm sure you can find a room for under like $60 a night that will be clean and in a safe area, should be fine for a budget trip.

I thought I read that privilege was going away at the end of the year for the Non-Disney resorts in the Disney Springs area. If it's a privilege that's still available when you travel absolutely stay at a property that allows it, if not you might be able to find a Wyndham property that's considerably less points just a few miles off of property. You might have to pay for parking at the parks, but avoiding the parking fees at the on property hotel and the lower rewards points rates should kinda cancel it out a bit.